Developer Harry Culver had the land; filmmaker Thomas Ince, the dream. When the pair met, local history—and entertainment history—was made.
Culver was a Nebraska migrant who went on to found Culver City, an approximately one-square-mile stretch of the southland, seven or so miles east of the Pacific Ocean and about ten miles west of Downtown Los Angeles.
Ince was a Rhode Island–born actor turned producer and director known for juggling many behind-the-scenes roles and responsibilities. In 1912, he built and opened a sprawling studio, dubbed Inceville, in what’s now the Pacific Palisades. Legend has it that Culver stumbled upon an Ince film shoot near a creek and invited the director to come inland.
In 1915, Triangle Pictures Production Company was born, a partnership between Ince, D. W. Griffith, and Mack Sennett. Triangle Studios opened at 10202 West Washington Boulevard, with four studios on seven acres. Publicity materials boast the facilities cost $1 million—in today’s currency: $30 million. Triangle was named after the geographic shape of the lot, which is bracketed by Washington Boulevard to the north, Culver Boulevard to the south, and Overlook Avenue to the east.
The signature building on the property stands as part of Sony Pictures Studios, its white colonnades lining Washington Boulevard. In 1915, the taller three-story building next door had a large sign affixed to its roof, promoting Ince and Triangle.
From 1916 through 1918, IMDb lists 265 silent film titles released by Triangle. Twenty-four more came out in 1919, and another in 1922. Most of the films were shot at the studio, including the detective thriller The Phantom (1916) and Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916) starring Fatty Arbuckle. Various Triangle pictures were directed by cowboy actor William S. Hart, while Ince helmed the pacifist treatise, Civilization (1916).
Within four years, though, Triangle was history. Samuel Goldwyn’s Goldwyn Pictures acquired the studio and added more stages and buildings. In 1924, Marcus Loew acquired Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer Productions, merged them with his previous acquisition Metro Pictures, and decided to use Goldwyn's home base as the new studio's location.
Under the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer banner, the studio grew to 180 acres, with its own fire and police department, post office, and 16,000-gallon water tower. The MGM years featured films such as Grand Hotel (1932), Singin’ in the Rain (1952), Ben-Hur (1959), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and of course: The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Sony Pictures acquired the property in 1989 and today there are 16 sound stages. The lot is punctuated by an arching 94-foot sculpture with stripes of red, orange, yellow, blue, and purple––so everyone on the lot finds themselves somewhere over the rainbow.
As for Ince? By 1924, he was dead under mysterious circumstances that to this day remain tabloid-style fodder. But back in 1919 when Triangle ended, Ince moved down the block and opened Thomas H. Ince Studio, later called The Culver Studios—Citizen Kane (1941) was shot there. Culver City, which eventually grew to encompass about five square miles, was also home to Hal Roach Studios, famed for Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang/The Little Rascals. Proud of their studios per capita, Culver City’s official seal reads in part: “The Heart of Screenland.”